Fowle's New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

The conduct of Capt. Stanhope, commander of the British frigate which lately conveyed a number of transports from Halifax to Boston, to get a supply of live cattle, &c. has been a matter of much conversation in town and country.

Captain Stanhope on his arrival at Boston, was treated with the respect due to a stranger, and had attention paid him in all polite companies. One evening as he was walking in the mall with some of his officers, &c. he was accosted by an American seaman, who, it seems, had during the war, been a prisoner on board of a British man of war, where Capt. Stanhope was then an under-officer, and had been very ill-treated by him; the American tars have as high notions of honour as the British he demanded satisfaction of Capt. Stanhope, and, from some answer given by Stanhope, began to attack him; he was seconded by some mess-mates Stanhope retreated the seamen pursued and as they run through the streets a number of boys, &c. collected. Stanhope and his companions, arriving at the door of a friend's house, made a stand and drew their swords. Some gentlemen, among whom was the High-Sheriff for the County of Suffolk, who happened accidentally to be near by, interposed, dispersed the people and protected the officers.

Stanhope, it is said, made a very serious affair of it, and his lively imagination led him to suppose that he was attacked by hundreds; he wrote, it is said, in very high terms to the Governor, and required him to issue a proclamation to apprehend four or five hundred people, who had "assassinated" him the evening before. In short, his indecent behaviour to his Excellency and some others, caused an enquiry into his conduct, which was found to be inconsistent as a man of honour, and unworthy the commander of a British or any other ship.